The Universitat de València and The Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) inaugurate tomorrow Wednesday 6th February a new joint centre of research. The Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SYSBIO) focuses on the study of complex biologic systems, specially microorganisms, applicable mainly to biomedicine and biotechnology. The centre works by means of an innovate public-private model and it will be inaugurated by the rector Esteban Morcillo and the president of the CSIC, Rosa Menéndez.
The event will take place on the facilities of the I2SYSBIO, at the Parc Científic of the Universitat de València. It will be attended, apart from the rector and the president of the CSIC, by Carmen Vela, secretary of the State Secretariat of Research, Development and Innovation; by Vicent Soler, the minister of Finance and Economic Model of the Valencian Regional Government (conseller d’Hisenda i Model Econòmic de la Generalitat Valenciana); by the director and subdirector of the I2SYSBIO and by José Luis García López and Juli Peretó, among other authorities.
The current study of biologic processes on living organisms, treated as complex systems, requires the collaboration of diverse theoretical and experimental disciplines that converge on the Integrative Systems Biology. The advances in systemic life knowledge join the search of solutions in the field of health or the pharmaceutical and agri-food industries. It is a new area of scientific research, also denominated New Biology, and it nourishes from the knowledge of geneticists, biochemists, cellular biologists or computational biologists.
The I2SYSBIO, mixed centre of research of the Universitat de València and the CSIC, focuses its research on the structure, function, dynamics, evolution and modification of complex biologic systems, emphasising on the study of the microorganisms’ systems. Organised in five areas of action – interdisciplinary work environment in order to solve common problems, development of high-quality research, knowledge transferring, training of researchers and the impulse of Integrative Systems Biology in Spain. The institute is opened to the participation of knowledge-based companies, as it is the case of the biotech BIOPOLIS, the first private entity signing a protocol of collaboration with the new Institute for Integrative Systems Biology.
Co-ruled by the microbiologist José Luis García López (CSIC) and the biochemist Juli Peretó (UV), the institute covers five programs of biological research: Theoretical and Computational, Molecular Interactions s and Regulation, Pathogenic Systems, Symbionts Evolution and Applied Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology. It counts on 13 groups of research.
Placed on a recently constructed building at the Parc Científic of the Universitat de València, the I2SYSBIO starts with a workforce of 80 employees – researchers and supporting staff – and an excellent scientific grounding provided by researchers mostly coming from the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, of the Universitat de València, and from the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, joint centre CSIC-UPV.
The new building is structured in wide opened and shared spaces as co-working laboratories, inspired by the working philosophy of the most advanced researching centres, and designed to favour the collaboration between researches from different theoretical, experimental and computational areas in common projects.
The inauguration of the I2SYSBIO will take place Tuesday 6th February at 10.30 am, on the facilities of the new institute, at the Parc Científic (Burjassot-Paterna Campus).